Page 54 - Plastics News July 2024

FEATURE NEWS

portation, and management of construction and City residents and environmental advocates say that
demolition (C&D) waste in the city. The tender, ini- the gap in appointing a new agency for managing
tially floated on February 9, 2024, saw competitive C&D waste can have implications for Gurugram’s
bids from four companies through an e-tendering environmental health and urban cleanliness.
process, with the lowest bid coming from Pragati AL
Natural Resources Pvt Ltd at ₹162 per tonne. Nijesh Manderna, MCG executive engineer, said that
Pragati can participate in the tender again since the
The rate was further negotiated to ₹160 per tonne, request for standard proposal (RFP) will now be de-
and a Letter of Intent (LOI) was issued to the com- cided for the entire state, and not taken up district
pany on March 16, this year. wise. “Since the company is not blacklisted or barred,
they cab participate in the bid again,” he said.
The officials said that according to the tender con-
ditions, Pragati AL Natural Resources would have Manderna said the new tender process is not
charged ₹112 per tonne for legacy waste collec- against the company but to bring more clarity and
tion, nearly 70% lower than the rate paid by the civic transparency across the state. “A stand document
body to another private company for similar servic- will be prepared for the state and all districts will fol-
es within a 15-km radius from the processing plant low the same,” he said.
at Basai.
Joginder Singh, former president of Sector 57 RWA,
However the tender was cancelled abruptly. A said C&D waste is all over the city. “Before the new
spokesperson for Pragati said several accusations company could start work, their tender has been
were made with an intent to defame the company’s cancelled. Now it will take another few months for a
reputation but nothing was found against them. new concessionaire to come and till then, the situa-
“We have been unfairly treated as the tender was tion will worsen. The complaints are not heard and
recalled, despite an offer to set up a mobile process- we have been paying out of our pockets to get C&D
ing plant free of cost. We believe that implementing waste disposed of,” he said.
the tender will significantly reduce illegal dumping, Source – Hindustan Times
as lower rates [offered by the company] will discour-
age people from using unauthorised tractor trolleys
[to dump C&D waste],” the spokesperson said.

56 PLASTICS NEWS July 2024